Familiar face to break deadlock

Italian MPs have elected President Giorgio Napolitano to an unprecedented second term of office in a bid to end a two-month deadlock on forming a new government.

Mr Napolitano, who only agreed to stand after an appeal by the country's main political parties, was elected to cheers in parliament but jeering from hundreds of protesters outside who chanted ''Shame!'' and ''Jokers!''

Mr Napolitano's re-election came in the sixth round of voting in the parliament.

''I am driven at this time by a feeling that I cannot escape from assuming my responsibilities towards the nation, trusting that my gesture could be matched by a similar assumption of responsibility,'' Mr Napolitano said.

Earlier, he was visited by the secretary of the centre-left Democratic Party, Pier Luigi Bersani, as well as conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi and outgoing centrist premier Mario Monti.

All begged him to stay in his job.

The President, who will be 88 in June, had repeatedly turned down similar invitations in recent weeks, saying he was too old.

Comedian turned activist Beppe Grillo, who acts as M5S spokesman, called on ''millions'' to descend upon Rome to protest against the defeat of his party's candidate, leftist law professor Stefano Rodota, who the Democratic Party refused to support.''There must be millions of us. Don't leave me alone or with just a handful of people,'' Mr Grillo wrote on his blog.

"We either make democracy here or we die as a country.

''A coup is taking place," he said, claiming that as well as endorsing Mr Napolitano, other leaders had agreed to form a coalition government headed by former premier Giuliano Amato, which would ''muzzle'' judges and preserve state funding for political parties.

Electing a new president was seen as crucial to ending the political gridlock that has gripped the eurozone's third-largest economy since February elections delivered a hung parliament and saw the rise of the anti-establishment M5S.

Born in Naples, Mr Napolitano was, in his early career, an orthodox communist.

In 1956, he criticised Italian Communist Party (PCI) militants who opposed the Soviet Union's invasion of Hungary, saying it was the only way to avoid plunging the Eastern European country into chaos.

However, by the 1970s, he grew into one the leaders of the PCI's moderate faction and its unofficial foreign minister.

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger used to call him ''my favourite communist''.

AFP/DPA

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/world/familiar-face-to-break-deadlock-20130421-2i8c1.html